Citizenship - Introduction

Creator Space™ tour New York
May 26-27, 2015
Pre-read materials for Summit Challenge - Citizenship
Introduction
What are we going to do?
Done right, cities can be enablers for human ingenuity: As we all live closer and
closer to one another, we enjoy more social contact than on the farm, in the village
or in the suburbs. And that leads to sharing more ideas. Indeed, cities are the great
idea hubs of the world.
But urban population will double to 7 billion people in the next 40 years, and this
could put our treasured cities at risk. i
This means we must change our perspective and see our responsibilities differently
than before. We are not only the consumers of what the city has to offer. We are the
co-creators of our cities and our urban communities. This implies a responsibility we
all carry to make our cities more livable and sustainable for the long term.
Below you will find a variety of materials to get us all thinking about the Summit
challenge we face. You'll also meet one of the experts who will guide you at the
Summit, along with residents of Red Hook.
We invite you to read through the materials and post any comments or questions
you have on Creator Space Online, where we are discussing the three broad themes
of the BASF 150th Anniversary tour stops. These include not only Urban Living, but
also Food and Smart Energy.
First, a definition of citizenship:
Citizenship and the built environment are inherently linked so that one thrives with
the other. If people are cut off and estranged from their built environment, they are
less likely to fulfill the obligations they have to their neighbors and communities;
likewise, if the built environment does not enable people to communicate, negotiate,
thrive and compromise, citizenship will suffer.
A look at Red Hook
With its heterogeneous and changing population, its potential for development, as
well as its hazards, Red Hook affords opportunities and challenges for enhanced
citizen participation. Given Red Hook’s vulnerability to flooding, its citizens require a
dual-use public infrastructure – one that provides both opportunities for social
interaction on a day-to-day basis and community resources during times of
emergency.
Red Hook is physically isolated from adjoining neighborhoods by the BrooklynQueens expressway. It is poorly served by public transportation, disconnected from
other parts of the city, and has little sense of place.
A significant segment of the Red Hook population lives in the New York City
Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) Red Hook Houses. This population is isolated both
physically and socially – as this aging public housing is both substandard and a sign
of “second class” citizenship.
While the Red Hook Houses are adjacent to public recreation areas and there are
successful citizen initiatives -- such as the nearby urban farm – the citizens of Red
Hook suffer from the lack of quality housing stock and limited opportunities to
participate in public life.
More recently, a more affluent and generally younger population has been settling in
the area, and some adaptive reuse of industrial buildings, such as co-working or
workshop spaces, suggests ways that community resources could flourish. IKEA
and Fairway are automobile-oriented destinations, and both container and cruise
ships dock in the area. The relation between transients and residents is
disconnected.
These facts raise fundamental questions about Citizenship in Red Hook: How well is
civil society working in Red Hook? Are residents satisfied with the community they
are creating?
What's more, does Red Hook have the civic infrastructure it needs to connect it?
And is that infrastructure being used?
One thing is clear: The area requires quality housing for different economic groups.
At the same time, the design of housing must be appropriate to the environmental
and social conditions of the area – both in terms of physical design and the social
connection it enables.
i
Source: ICLEI